Agricultural material, such as cotton, forage, silage, haylage, biomass, and the like, are commonly packaged in large unitary bales or modules. Presently, large baling and packaging apparatus carried on or towed by harvesting vehicles, also referred to as balers, module builders or on-board module builders (OBMB), are capable of forming bales and modules as large as 8 feet by 8 feet by 16 feet (approx. 250 by 250 by 500 cm). These bales and modules are unloaded to ground level and are wrapped or covered with tarps designed to cover the top and a portion of the sides of the bales or modules. This unloading can occur in the field, or at the periphery of the field, and the bales or modules are picked up later by transport vehicles and taken for processing, use, or storage. It is not uncommon for bales or modules to be unloaded, loaded, and transported several times, including in large groupings and abutting positions, and wherein markings may not be readily visible or it may otherwise be difficult to visually discern one module or bale from another, e.g., a long row or rows of modules or bales along the periphery of a field or in a storage or collection area.
In precision farming operations, an accurate mapping of the characteristics of the harvested agricultural product is desired for correlation with information stored at various phases of production, such as planting, growing, harvesting, transporting, processing, or classifying. Analysis of this mapping may allow a farmer to improve crop yield and quality. For example, the farmer may identify an area of the field in which the yield was lower than expected, identify the planting and chemical application for that area, and adjust accordingly. At the next harvest, the farmer can analyze the characteristics of the crop for that area of the field and determine if the adjustment was satisfactory.
In many situations, it is desirable to record, correlate, and analyze information associated with transporting the bales or modules of agricultural product. This information may be of value in determining the effectiveness of equipment, efficiency and timeliness of vehicles, operators, and the like. This record may provide information for determining ownership and/or liability for damage that may occur to the bales or modules during transport.
To facilitate the collection of information for analysis, it is important to know the area in the field from which a particular bale or module is harvested. It may also be important to know the location of harvest or identity for tracking ownership of a bale, e.g., tenant or operator verses landowner or gin operator. Often the bales or modules are marked with a hand written load identifier for this purpose. However, physically marking modules and bales is labor intensive and prone to human error. Also, many times modules and bales are covered, either with a reusable or disposable cover or tarp at some point which may cover markings or which may be previously marked so as to confuse, and/or the markings may be obscured or made difficult to read at times, such as by adjacent modules or bales, dirt, darkness, etc.
It would be beneficial to identify bales or modules by global positioning system (GPS) coordinates or another tracking system instead of, or in addition to, the known manners of physical marking. In this regard, numerous system are known that use a tarp or cover having an associated electronically trackable tag, e.g., an RFID tag GPS transponder, or the like. There are also more recently known systems that utilize a tag or transponder embedded in or attached to the bale or module itself, including as it is formed or unloaded. However, observed possible shortcomings of these systems include, in the instance of those tracked by cover or tarp, mis-tagging, e.g., as a result of human error or confusion, lost covers or tarps from wind or vandalism, and in both cases, battery and/or other equipment failure. As another potential problem, when bales or modules are unloaded, one known manner of unloading involves tilting module or bale making or building apparatus, extending a long ramp therefrom, and moving along the ground or other surface as the bale or module travels down the inclined ramp. When the bale or module contacts the ground, it may drag thereover for some distance until it is finally unloaded and stationary. Thus if the bale or module itself does not carry a tag or transponder, it can be difficult to ascertain at what point it became stationary, for purposes of recording its location from the unloading vehicle. Bales and modules are frequently stored in close proximity, e.g., in end to end relation, and without accurate unloading location information for the individual bales or modules, it may not be possible for loading personnel to discern the identity of a particular bale or module. As an example in this regard, if cotton modules are marked on one end, such as the forward end when being unloaded from a harvester, if two or more modules are located on a field in end to end relation, with the front ends in abutment, it may not be possible or easy to discern one from the other using available location information, e.g., RFID tag or GPS information alone. As a result, it would be particularly beneficial to use a history of GPS coordinates to track or identify a bale or module that is moved prior to being marked. If bales or modules are identified in error, the information associated with the mapping of the field will be in error, and any future decisions made will be based on incorrect information.
Accordingly, what is sought is a system and method for determining a location of an unloaded unit of agricultural product and locating a desired unit of agricultural product among candidate units of agricultural product as a function of global positioning or other location system information, which overcomes at least one of the problems, shortcomings or disadvantages as set forth above.